HOUSTON, Texas – Traveling during the holidays can be fun for some, but not so much for others.
This year, an estimated 4.45 million Americans will fly for the Thanksgiving holiday, a 4.6% increase from last year.
Knowing what’s happening in the air traffic at any given moment in time is half the battle. Luckily, there’s an app for that called FlightAware.
The information for the app is aggregated at the company’s headquarters in Houston.
Sherron Goodenough is the Director of Data Solutions for FlightAware, the world’s largest flight tracking and data platform, with over 10 million people using the web and mobile app each month.
"We're tracking over 160,000 unique aircraft per day," said Goodenough.
One popular feature is the misery map.
"It's basically a high-level overview of what is being impacted nationwide and you can zoom in to airport level and see how many delays and cancellations are occurring between certain segments or at a specific airport," said Goodenough.
FlightAware receives and processes over 60 distinct data feeds from all over the world, including the FAA, global air traffic control, airlines and their own ADSB network.
Goodenough says the next step is going beyond real-time tracking to forecasting.
"We're working on predictive technology efforts so we can just provide way better insight into what to expect for the flight," said Goodenough.
The app helps to track everything from flight status to turbulence at your fingertips.